Over 500 JuD, FIF properties confiscated under NAP

LAHORE: Under the National Action Plan (NAP), more than 500 properties owned by the banned Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) and its affiliated social welfare organization, Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), have been confiscated all over Punjab by the Punjab government, The News has learnt.

Sources in the Punjab Home Department told The News that in 36 districts of Punjab, the JuD and FIF-owned properties including schools, colleges, hospitals, dispensaries, seminaries, ambulances and steamer boats have been taken into custody by the government of Punjab. The management and operational control of these properties numbering over 500 have been taken over by the district administrations.

In the month of March, the process of taking over the control of JuD and FIF properties began from Chakwal and Attock. Now all properties belonging to the JuD and FIF all over the province have been taken into control by the government of Punjab after a crackdown on the proscribed originations was completed, said a high official in the Home Department.

The sources said the government is also keeping an eye on the members of the proscribed organizations to prevent them from using the name of their organizations for collecting funds, directly or indirectly, inside and outside the country.

An official of the Punjab Home Department said the government is monitoring the members and employees of the JuD, FIF and other banned organizations since under the National Action Plan (NAP), no proscribed organization could be allowed to work with a new name. The government is trying to fully implement the NAP to eliminate extremism and terrorism from the country and present a soft image of the country like it was in the past, the official said.

It is pertinent to mention here that both the JuD and FIF were placed on watch list by the UN in January 2017. They were declared proscribed by the UN in March 2019 and subsequently by the Ministry of Interior under Section 11-B-(1) r/w Schedule-I, Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. The country has already frozen the assets of the JuD and FIF. Since the organizations/splinter outfits have been notified as proscribed, giving them aid or financial assistance has become illegal and anyone supporting them in any manner can be punished up to 10 years imprisonment and heavy fine.